The Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Dr Mohamed Muizzu Friday night revealed that the government has plans to clear five areas in the densely populated capital Male to initiate development projects that were modeled after Tokyo, Japan.

Speaking on state broadcaster TVM, Dr Muizzu said that the government has decided to clear seven blocks from western-Maafannu area and compensate some 256 families living in these areas by giving them flats in the reclaimed suburb Hulhumale.

“We have planned to redevelop these areas. We have completed detail surveys and we’ve already made the plans. In order to carry out our plans the way we want to, we need to clear these areas,” Dr Muizzu said.

This area in Male is highly congested with people living uncomfortably in “stacked up” apartments built on small areas of land, Dr Muizzu said, describing Maafanu.

There are four similar areas in Male, the housing minister claimed, though he had not specified the areas. He said that development projects would take place in these areas and that the people living there would also have to be relocated. Dr Muizzu, however, assured that the government would provide housing for them elsewhere.

Even though the minister did not divulge the details of the government’s plans, he said that there would be parks and public spaces, and that the roads would also be redesigned in the new developments.

Dr Muizzu said that the Japan’s capital Tokyo is an exemplary city when it comes to designing around dense populations and that the government hopes to use it as in ideal model in its future plans for Male redevelopment.

The minister noted Rasfannu on the western-end of Male and the several parks built around the capital by the government as examples of its current initiative to make Male more “pleasant.”